Has much of your interested shifted from rifles?

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Ignition Override

New member
As a novice with handguns, access to the usual, interesting rifle location recently has been put off limits to many people.

Anyway, have some of you begun your first classic (WW2 etc) handgun collecting and find these compact types as interesting as your favorite rifles?

My first handgun was acquired a year ago at age 58: the WW2 Sauer 38H.
 
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jstanfield103

New member
In my case all I use to be interested in was handguns. Now all I seem to want to shoot is rifles. I still own four handguns but traded the rest off for rifles. Mostly lever action too.
 
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johnwilliamson062

Moderator
I am going to guess OP means there aren't many place he can shoot his rifles.

I have a similar problem and have found I shoot pistols more and more because I have limited opportunities to shoot rifles at long ranges and it is much more expensive.
 
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BigJimP

New member
In my area...we have a lot of access to ranges for both / but I've given up much interest in rifles - except lever action rifles in handgun calibers like .357 Mag and .44 Mag....and turned my interest mostly to handguns - both semi-auto and revolvers.

But it has little to do with access to ranges...
 
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bedbugbilly

New member
Cheapshooter . . . "The only access that is cut off to me is done so by my bank account."

Let's not forget the other important factor you fail to mention . . . W-I-F-E! :D

My primary interest for close to 50 years was rifles - but when I retired, I pretty much sold off all of my collection - then got interested in pistol shooting and re-loading which I greatly enjoy. Recently though, I got interested in getting an old GEW98 Mauser working again (a souvenir from World War I - I knew the vet that brought it back). I'm having a great time in reloading "cat sneeze" cast bullet loads for it. So much fun in fact that I now have the urge to get several more calibers - 30/30 and 30-06 to play with utilizing cast bullet loads. (Why, oh why did I ever sell the ones I used to own!?).

Fortunately, I have farmland to shoot on so it's not an issue as far as using the rifles. However, not everyone is that lucky and it's a shame there aren't more ranges where rifles can be fired at greater distances than what pistols are.
 
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Cheapshooter

New member
Cheapshooter . . . "The only access that is cut off to me is done so by my bank account."

Let's not forget the other important factor you fail to mention . . . W-I-F-E!
Click to expand...

Got that one covered. When ever she complains about me buying another gun that "I don't need", I tell her we will compare how much I can get for the last three guns I bought as a % of what I paid to what she can get for the last three boxes of carp she got from QVC! I win every time!:D
 
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Cheapshooter

New member
Has much of your interested shifted from rifles?
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Actually, my interest is shifting a little more towards shotguns, and away from rifles, and handguns.
I have enough hunting rifles to cover my needs. I have collected at least one example of most of the more common, and affordable C&R milsurps rifles. Most of the affordable milsurps handguns as well. I have a few evil black rifles, various modern handguns as well. My short list of handguns has gotten really short. Even though a few "for the heck of it" on a whim guns have crept in as well.
For a long time I only had one Shotgun. A Remington 1100 12 guage Magnum I bought over 30 years ago that is still in like new condition. Recently I had a hankering for a defensive type shotgun, and as mostly just a play thing built up a Remington Express 18" 7 shot 12 vulgarity all sorts of Mall Ninja approved tactically stuff. Then I had a chance to recapture my youth of nearly sixty years ago with an example of the first shotgun I ever hunted with. A Winchester 97. The deal also came along with a 1930's something era model 12 20 gauge. I then found another scattering of my younger years. One I let go of when I bought the 1100, and have recreated ever sense. A Stevens 311 16 gauge. Now my quest is for the gun that preceded it in my youth. The first shotgun I could call my very own. A Stevens Model 59a 410 bolt action. I thought it would be easy to find one, and not really all that pricey. But it seems there is more interest in them, and fewer of them around than I thought.
 
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CajunBass

New member
I've never had much interest in rifle. I got into shooting/hunting with shotguns. Deer hunting with rifles wasn't allowed where I grew up so we hunted everything with a shotgun. I bought a 12 ga. pump gun from Sears back in 1976 and still have it today. I've owned a few others, but that's the one I've used 95 % of the time.

I have owned and used a few 22 rifles, mostly for squirrel hunting. The centerfire rifles I've owned, quickly went on down the road due mostly to (1) lack of interest in them, and (2) lack of a place to shoot them. More the lack of interest. If I'd really been interested in them, I could have found a place to shoot I'm sure.

Handguns, well I suppose my interest in them came from the TV westerns, and cop shows I grew up watching. I honestly don't know how many handguns I've owned. I buy, sell, trade and swap them all the time.
 
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lifesizepotato

New member
I was never much into rifles, always handguns. I think it's funny how on a lot of gun boards, the unspoken consensus is that rifles are the "default" gun. I find handguns to be much more interesting and fun to shoot.
 
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jmr40

New member
If you look at the number of posts on this site the handgun forum are about twice as active as the rifle related posts. That says something.

I'm more of a rifleman. But I also shoot handguns and shotguns. Nothing to change that since I started shooting.
 
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Dragline45

New member
While I enjoy pistols more than rifles I have been getting more into rifles lately, in fact my last 2 purchases have been long guns.
 
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WV_gunner

New member
I have always hunted with a rifle and only deer until the last few years.i didn't grow up with shotguns and handguns. I'm also a man that absolutely hates change, but I'm starting to get out of that. I've been changing things up with what I deer hunt with the last 2 years. Now I'm wanting to try handgun hunting this year. If it goes well I'm gonna start saving pennies and buy a good hunting gun. The gun I have for this year isn't the greatest of choices. I'm looking at stuff from Magnum Research. Maybe a BFR in .30-30 or .45-70, Lone Eagle in .35 Remington, or if funds permit a Desert Eagle .44 with a 14 inch barrel.
 
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Gregory Gauvin

New member
My interest began in pistols began with the purchase of a surplus Makarov PM. I never had a large desire to collect WWII guns specifically - but that purchase spawned a collection of soviet block and eastern European cold war pistols, as they had been flooding the surplus market at the time. Unfortunately today's market has dried them up and what you do find has significantly gone up in price. I would like a Browning HI-Power however to complete my pistol indulgences. Possibly something in 9mm Largo as well, although, another big downer is the fact that surplus ammunition (take 7.62x25 for example) is gone - so lately, I've just been shooting my modern guns.
 
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P5 Guy

New member
Shifted

Actually, I've shifted from handguns to rifles. I find I enjoy shooting my 1903A3, M1, SKS and AR15 more than any of my handguns, except my 22 revolver.
 
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3kgt2nv

New member
I find that shooting pistols is much more relaxing and involving than rifles. go shooting rifles with a buddy and one person shoots and one spots or your both at a bench shooting. with pistols it always turns into a accuracy competition with shooting dimes with a 22 at 25 yards taking turns and what not when friends are involved or setting up a reactive steel plate course and running it. or running advancing drills etc. seems more shooting these days are being focused on handguns and less on rifles. and I come from 500+ yard garand and 1000+ yrd benchrest shooting.

while I still shoot rifles its usually more when im shooting alone which is not often.
 
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9ballbilly

New member
Completely since I stopped hunting. Just recently sold my last rifle (held onto it for years) and bought a Ruger security six revolver.
 
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KyJim

New member
I grew up in a rural area where folks owned rifles and shotguns for hunting. Some may have owned handguns but they weren't a big deal. Decades ago (pains me to say that) my interest in guns turned more toward self-defense when I moved to an urban area. This intensified when I realized I could store multiple handguns in the same space as one rifle. :) Lately, I've gravitated back just a bit toward long guns with an interest in ARs and shotguns as defensive tools. Handguns remain my primary interest, however.
 
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